*Panama City, Panama, October 24th 2008. *On October 28th, a coalition of Panamanian NGOs and indigenous organizations will present their case against the Panamanian government at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, based in Washington DC. Participating in this hearing will be indigenous leaders from the Foundation for Development of the Wounaan, The Movement for the Defense of the Archipelago Territory of Bocas Del Toro, The Naso Alliance, and the Ngobe communities on the Changuinola River in “La Amistad” Biosphere Reserve.

The representatives of these indigenous groups will denounce the Panamanian government for a variety of offenses: first, for ignoring their rights of free and informed prior consent for the enactment of development projects in their ancestral territories; second, for allowing uncontrolled, sometimes armed, invasions by cattle ranchers in the Kuna, Emberá, and Wounaan territories of eastern Panama. In addition, the government has provided concessions to private groups that allow for the construction of hydroelectric, mining, and high-impact tourism projects on the lands where the indigenous Naso and Ngobe live.

According to Feliciano Santos, a Ngöbe man who lives on the Archipelago of Bocas del Toro, “The government is allowing foreign people and companies to displace the indigenous people from their land with the help of the police, who have executed forceful expulsions of our people from the archipelago islands where we live and from other indigenous areas that have been licensed to the AES Corporation for hydroelectric projects.”

Hugo Sanchez, a member of the Naso Alliance, has stated, “The current problem is very serious in our community. There have been abuses and threats from the police, local authorities, and the Public Company of Medellin (EPM) against the Naso people who oppose the Bonyic hydroelectric project in our territory. We have gone to the local and national authorities, but the abuses have not stopped. For this reason we are going to the Commission so that they can hear our statements and our testimony of what is happening in our territory, and also to our indigenous brothers across Panama. The creation of the Naso Comarca is also an urgent necessity.”

Despite the fact that Panama has signed the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, the Panamanian government has refused to recognize the principle of free and informed prior consent, by eliminating various articles from the General Environmental Law that guarantees this right.

Susana Serracin, the legal advisor for the Alliance for Conservation and Development (ACD), commented that the elimination of these rules has allowed displacements of indigenous people for the sake of the enrichment of elite groups. It is quite evident that there have been violations of the Panamanian constitution, international treaties, and the General Environmental Law. Even without taking into consideration the social, environmental, and cultural implications, the government has clearly promoted the violation of human rights.

The proposal for this hearing in front of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights was presented by the US environmental organizations Cultural Survival, Native Future, and Environmental Defender Law Center (EDLC), and by the Panamanian organization Alliance for Conservation and Development (ACD).

For more information, please contact the Alliance for Conservation and Development: acdpanama@gmail.com